


Eleven Years Old

by HamThePan



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: (that won't be hard), A lot of them are probably ooc bc I don't know how to Write™, Adoption, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Foster families, Home schooling, I gotta channel my inner eleven year old, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, LGBTQ Characters, Light Angst, Minor Character death?? eventually, Multi, Oops, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attack, Peggy has ADD, Rain, Sickness, The Schuyler sisters are adopted??, adoption au, fostering, peggy and eliza are at least, shes a smol bean with anxiety and attenion problems tbh, tags will update as the story goes on, theres no set location for this tbh, they Smol™
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 20:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8504260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HamThePan/pseuds/HamThePan
Summary: Margarita Ann drifted from foster home to foster home, she did her best to blend in and not cause any trouble, and like every other kid in the system she hoped she'd find a permanent family.And when she was eleven years old, she was picked up by the Schuyler family.//Work title is prone to change!! (lowkey taking suggestions lemme hear 'em yo.)//The updating schedule is non-existent, my apologies.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaa?? I wanted to be a #rebel and post something that's Not about Alexander (*cough*something's still going to end up being about Alexander*cough*) and also a lot of people (including myself yes hi) seem to headcanon that the Schuyler sisters are adopted in modern au's?? And also?? As someone who is homeschooled??? I had the idea around midnight, wrote a rough draft before bed the other night, and here I am at my computer screaming about the election with my australian friend and posting this.
> 
> Today is a weird day.
> 
> Anyway!! I hope y'all will enjoy this!! Be sure to comment if you do like it, it'll really motivate me to write more!! And you can always message me on my tumblr @HamThePan !!

Margarita Ann almost hated her life. Almost.

For the past year she had been staying with a foster family, which wasn't incredibly new considering her circumstances, for as long as she had been with them, Peggy didn't actually remember their last name, it was Smith or something as boring, they had two other biological kids, she was the odd one out, and as welcoming as they tried to be, she knew she didn't belong.

Woah, that was pretty emo sounding, she considered writing that down for later.

Every day it was the same thing, wake up early in the morning, get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to school. Peggy hated school, she hated sitting around all day listening to old people drone on about stupid subjects that wouldn't help her in her adult life, she hated not being able to eat whenever she wanted and she hated being coped up for long periods of time, unable to run or move or write or anything, it was boring and tedious and she hated every second of it.

But she blended in, she forced herself to stay still, she forced herself to eat little and on a schedule, and she forced herself to shut down her thoughts and focus on what they were saying. If suffering was what it took to keep her grades up and the attention off of herself, Peggy would take it.  
-  
That day started like any other, the same morning routine, the same school routine, and the same after school routine. She trudged to the bus stop once the bell rang, carrying her too heavy backpack over one shoulder and trying to stay out of everyone's way.

Her "siblings" had, predictively, run off with their friends instead of stay and ride the bus home with her, which was fine with her, really. Peggy didn't like them much anyway, they always gave her weird looks and whispered about her when they thought she couldn't hear.

The bus finally rolled up, pulling Peggy from her thoughts. At first she hung back, letting the other students pile on first before she shuffled forward and onto the tuna can on wheels, with no friends, Peggy didn't have anyone to sit by and instead found an empty seat towards the front. _"Hah,"_ she thought, dropping her bag next to her. "It just means I'll get off first."

Humming softly to herself, Peggy shuffled through her backpack and found her orange gelpen, but she couldn't find paper, so she just clicked the pen to the tune in her head until the bus finally reached her stop. She dropped the pen back in her backpack and got up as soon as the bus stopped, and was off right when the doors opened, setting off at a brisk walk towards her house, where-if she was lucky-she could dump her stuff before running off to the small, nearby park.

When she reached the house, Peggy tested the door handle to see if it was unlocked like usual, and it was, so she walked in and dropped her backpack in the entry way before making her way to the kitchen to grab a snack, in the dining room sat both of her foster parents, they watched her with matching solemn expressions.

"Margarita-" her foster dad- Fred? Bill? She couldn't remember his name-started.

 _"Full name, that's never good,"_ she thought before cutting in. "Peggy."

He cleared his throat rather awkwardly. "Right, uh, Peggy, we.. Have some news for you."

 _"Here it comes,"_ her thoughts chimed, she tried to look calm. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Well.." Mr. Foster Dad looked at Mrs. Foster Mom, who had an equally dull name Peggy couldn't remember, it was Carol or something with a C. Mrs. Foster Mom nodded to her husband to continue, and he did. "We aren't going to be fostering you anymore."

 _"There it is!"_ her thoughts chimed again, she frowned both inwardly and outwardly. "Oh," she said simply. "Then who is?"

"That's the thing," Mrs. Foster Mom spoke up. "We heard from your, uh, adoption agency, there's a family that wants to foster, and eventually adopt you. If you get along with them and their children."

Mrs. Foster Mom looked nervous about telling Peggy this, it made her small, meek, birdlike face seem even smaller. Mr. Foster Dad just looked solemn, expressionless, something he could pull off with his average looks.

"Really?" Peggy was doubtful, she had heard that at least twice before and each time the families had backed out rather suddenly after meeting her. No one really wanted to deal with a child who had ADD, she was always labelled "wild", even though all she was was fidgety, disorganized and forgetful.

"Yes, really." Mrs. Foster Mom smiled, perhaps reassuringly.

Peggy didn't know what she was supposed to do with this information. "Uh, cool! I guess, when do I meet them?"

"They've already done the paperwork and everything, I know it's not what you're used to, but you'll be leaving in two days to go to their house, and then you'll be staying with them for a while." Mr. Foster Dad told her, her frown deepened.

"Well, that's a bit abrupt." She looked at both of them, more confused than anything, but they shrugged, neither had answers for her.

Mrs. Foster Mom gave her a look of pity, or something close to it. "You might want to start packing now, dear, you don't want to forget anything." Peggy knew she just wanted to end the conversation, they both knew Peggy didn't have too much to pack, but she didn't argue, she just nodded and trudged off to the room she shared with Foster Sister Number One to get her things.  
-  
The next two days were filled with anxiety, she was tense and jumpy and her mind wandered a lot more than usual, instead of really focusing on anything she thiught about her new foster family and what they would be like. Mrs. Foster Mom had implied the family had atleast two other children, Peggy didn't know how to feel about that and it scared her.

It didn't take a lot to scare her, no matter how brave she acted.  
-  
By the time Peggy was supposed to leave, she was a wreck.

Sure she hated her boring life, but it was better than heading off to some unknown situation that she'd have little to no control in.

It was really early in the morning, and the air was brisk, the sun hadn't even risen yet, but Peggy was awake, brushing her hair out in her shared bedroom instead of eating, she was too nervous to eat. Her two bags were by the front door already, and her foster parents were in the dining room, waiting. Neither of her foster siblings were awake to see her off, and despite how much she disliked them, Peggy couldn't help but be a bit hurt. They could at least pretend to care.

She eventually made her way out front to sit on the steps that led to the front door, she wanted to avoid long goodbyes, and the cold air kept her alert and awake.

Finally, someone came to pick her up.

The agent that came to pick her up was a familiar one, his name was Mr. André, and he had known her for a while, since the beginning of her time in the system, really. Peggy's memory was spotty, but she was pretty sure he had been the one to pick her up from her biological family in the first place.

Peggy said goodbye to what had been her house and family for the past year and grabbed her bags before solemnly marching to Mr. André's car, she wanted to get it over with.

For the first half hour of their drive, she managed to keep her curiosity at bay, but it eventually bit past her defenses. "Where am I going?" She asked suddenly, startling the agent. "What is this family? Do they have kids? Where do they live?"

"Slow down, kiddo." André responded. "I think you'll like them, they have two daughters who are right in your age range and live in a nice place with lots of space to run around and explore in. You'll be homeschooled-"

"Homeschooled? What's that?" Peggy interrupted.

"I'm not sure about the specifics, but you won't be going to a normal school, instead you'll be allowed to learn at your own pace and go on field trips with their homeschooling group."

"There's.. A homeschooling group?

He nodded. "I guess? I don't know much about it, to be honest. But I'm sure you'll like it." André glanced at her in time to catch her unsure expression. "Trust me, kiddo, I picked this family for you."

Peggy frowned, but nodded. "Okay," she said finally.

"Good. Now rest up, it's a long drive."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *coughs* It's update time, kiddos.

It was a long drive.

For a good half of it, Peggy fought sleep by counting road signs, passing cars, and pretty much anything else she could count before she got bored, and for the other half, she slept, curled up against the window using her pastel yellow jacket as a pillow, it wasn't very effective and she ended up with a crick in her neck.

When Peggy woke up, it was late, around eleven, according to the clock on the dashboard. Peggy stirred, yawned, and sat up, blearily rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, after taking a few moments to stretch as best as she could and wake up some, she finally asked, "are we there yet?"

Mr. Andre looked at her in the rearview mirror, she was raking her fingers through her sleep-mussed hair and trying to get her curls in order. "According to the GPS, we're about fifteen minutes away." He told her, she just nodded and tried to hide her worry, she twisted in her seat and grabbed her backpack and dug around to find her pen and notebook, just so she'd have something to do until they got there.

Fifteen minutes passed and they were finally pulling up in the long driveway of a fancy looking house, Peggy put her things away and pulled her hair around her shoulder, nervously raking her fingers through the tangle of curls. The car came to a stop, she was shaking, had she been shaking for a while or had it just started? She couldn't really tell, Peggy took so deep breaths, there was nothing to worry about, it was going to be fine, she'd just need to blend, act normal, like every other house before this one.

"Are you okay?" Andre asked, she nodded in response. "Right, I am going to go and let them know we're here, do you want to come with or get your stuff?"

"I-" She paused, trying to calm her fast beating heart. "I guess I'll come with?"

Andre nodded and got out of the car, after a few moments Peggy followed suite and brought her backpack with her, he waited at the front of the car and when Peggy caught up, he started walking towards the house, she followed at a slower pace, looking around at the neatly groomed bushes and the evenly cut grass, the front yard was lit up by neatly placed garden lamps along neat looking paths, she couldn't help but wonder how large the property was.

The front porch was also quite nice, leaned with a neat white fence and decorated charmingly, little porch swings and potted flowers and the works. The door was also white, with a shiny gold handle and a rather decorative gold knocker, it was a double door (though only one side opened? Peggy never understood those kind of doors, it just didn't make sense!) and had long, thin windows on either side, along with pretty stained glass arch window above it, the house's exterior was made of brick and from what Peggy could tell from what she could see in the dark,it seemed to be a country styled home.

She had been so lost in thought that she didn't notice when Mr. Andre knocked on the door, nor did she notice when the door opened, but she did notice when people started talking. To her, the conversation seemed muted, she was too busy studying the people at the door.

The first person was a stern looking man, his hair was short, neatly cut, and already greying on the sides, his nose seemed a bit too big for his face, and his eyes a bit too wide set. The second person was a woman, her hair was dark and shoulder-length, her nose was a bit long, but she had pretty eyes and managed to make her current outfit (a night robe) look really nice.

Peggy knew right away it was going to be hard to fit in here. And then she noticed the other two people at the door. One was a tall-ish girl with dark, curly hair, a pretty, angled face, and dark eyes. She had a very protective aura around her, and looked strong, the other girl was a bit smaller and had light skin, smooth, soft looking brown hair and a soft, round face. Her eyes were light brown and had light lines around the edges, as if she spent a lot of time smiling, to Peggy, they seemed friendly enough.

She stopped staring and tuned back into the conversation, just as someone-the man-started to address her. "Margarita, is it?" He asked.

"Peggy," She responded, and then bit her tongue, so much for not talking back. The man just nodded. "Right, do you have any other bags? Girls," He addressed the two who stood behind him. "Go help Peggy get her bags."

Peggy shook her head slightly, "no, it's okay it's just-" But she stopped herself, the other two were already heading down the porch, how were they so fast? Peggy followed them down to the car. They didn't say anything as Peggy opened the back door of the car and got her duffel bag, the younger girl seemed tired, and the older girl seemed a bit weary, neither seemed to want to bother her, she wondered if she was coming off as too standoffish, sometimes it happened, she didn't mean too, she wanted to be friends, but she was nervous and stiff and couldn't relax, not yet.

The three silently trudged back up to the porch where the adults were finishing their conversation, the woman nodded to her and the girls, who, despite not saying anything, quietly stood on either side of her, which was something Peggy found odd but wasn't about to comment on. After a few more minutes, the adults decided it was late and time for them to all go inside, so they bid Mr. Andre goodbye (Peggy almost cried, though she wouldn't admit it) and ushered the girls inside.

Inside the house was nearly decorated, with a charming interior and open floor plan, it didn't look too lived in. The man said to her, "I bet you're tired," Peggy really wasn't, having slept most of the way there, but she didn't comment. "Eliza and Angelica can take you up to your room, on their way to bed." He held up a hand to silence the girl's sighs. "Go on, please, it's late and you have a trip tomorrow."

The younger looking girl perked up. "Oh, right! Ah, Peggy, right?" Peggy nodded. "Cool, follow me!"

Deciding the younger girl was Eliza-the name suited her-Peggy hefted her bags up and followed her up the stairs, halfway up, the older girl caught up and walked quietly next to Peggy, it was slightly odd but still comforting, she couldn't describe it.

The hallway was dimly lit, though she couldn't really tell why, probably because it was late and a good portion of the house was dark. Though sparse, the hallway's decoration was the same charming style as the rest of the house, there were three doors at one end of the hall, what appeared to be another living room in a lofty bit in the center of the hall, and past that was a fourth door, presumably the master bedroom.

Angelica caught Peggy's gaze. "That's our parents bedroom and what's essentially our hang out for when we have friends over." Peggy nodded once again, Angelica blinked. "You don't talk much, do you?" It sounded like a rhetorical question, one Peggy was saved from answering by Eliza calling for her softly.

At the very end of the hall were two rooms, right next to each other, next to the right room's door was another door, a closet perhaps, and next to the left room door was the bathroom. "Your room is on the right," Eliza told her, "Angie and I are right next to you, so holler if you need anything!" Peggy yet again, she had a voice, why didn't she use it?

With her bit done, Eliza slipped into her bedroom, leaving Peggy out in the hall with Angelica. "I better let you rest," the older girl said. "It's late, and this must be quite new to you. The bathroom is right there and like Lizzie said, holler if you need us."

"Okay, thanks."

If Angelica was surprised by Peggy speaking, she didn't show it, she just nodded politely and said goodnight before excusing herself. Peggy walked into her room and gently shut the door, sighing once it closed and leaning against the frame.

The room itself was nice. On the wall next to the door was a closet with slidy doors, on the right wall was a bed that had been pushed all the way back, right up next to the medium-sized window on the front wall, under the window was a nice looking desk, and against the left wall were two short bookcases next to a door that presumably connected her and the girl's rooms. Her room was white and sparsely decorated, the carpet was a soft beige color and fluffy, and from the ceiling hung a fan that was probably also the light source in the room.

Figuring she'd have more time to check it out tomorrow, Peggy set her bags down by the closet and changed into her pyjamas, light orange pants and a pale yellow t-shirt, before crawling into the bed and curling up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cool.
> 
> Thank for reading everyone!! Please leave feedback n comments and stuff, I love hearing from y'all!!
> 
> You can also message me at my tumblr, @HamThePan
> 
> Thank for reading!!


	3. Chapter 3

Peggy woke up early the next day, long before the sun had risen.

At first she panicked, wondering where she was and how she had gotten there, but it all came back to her quite soon and she calmed down. She laid in the unfamiliar bed, trying to calm down, _"You can do this,_ she thought. _"It's okay, you're okay, you're okay, you are okay."_

After a few minutes she rolled out of the bed and padded across the carpet to where she left her bags, then bent down and shuffled through her backpack to try and find her pen and notebook, once she did find them, she sat at the desk and wrote, nothing in particular, anything to keep her mind off the current events.

She must've fallen asleep, because when she woke up again it was because someone was lightly shaking her shoulder and trying to wake her. That someone turned out to be Eliza, and she looked rather concerned. "You didn't sleep there, right?" She asked, then paused. "I mean- good morning, hope you slept well, uh, you really didn't sleep at the desk right?"

"Uhm," Peggy cleared her throat, then suddenly closed her notebook to keep Eliza from seeing its contents. "No, no, I didn't, I just.. Woke up early, and, wanted to write." God, that sounded like an excuse, like she was lying, but she wasn't! Eliza didn't seem to care though, she just nodded thoughtfully. "Cool! Well, Angie's making breakfast, so, I guess, shower if you want and then come down to join us? And I can help with the shower if you need it-"

"No thanks," Peggy interrupted, trying to not sound too harsh. "A shower would do me good, so, uhm,"

"Right! Cya downstairs!" Eliza smiled and left, leaving Peggy to her thoughts. Deciding she was hungry, Peggy went and found a change of clothes, jeans, a light yellow t-shirt, and her comfortable light brown jacket, then she emerged from her room and trotted over to the bathroom.

Figuring out the shower was difficult, but she managed and took a too-hot shower that last about fifteen minutes. When she got out, Peggy got dressed and then dragged a brush through her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. She stood at the top of the stairs for a few moments to steel herself before finally heading down and making her way to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Eliza was sitting at the counter and watching Angelica as she made.. Something, for breakfast. From her angle, Peggy couldn't tell what Angelica was making, it smelled pretty good.

Eventually, Eliza noticed Peggy and waved her over, so she slowly padded over and leaned against the counter. "Mornin'."

"Good morning!" Eliza exclaimed, Angelica was going to say the same thing, but Eliza cut her off. "By the way, Angie, can everyone come over tomorrow?"

"Who's "everyone"?" Angelica asked, glancing at her sister, Eliza checked her phone. "The squad, Jefferson, Madison," she squinted. "Aaron, and it appears Maria wants to bring James?"

"Ask mom and dad first, make sure it would be okay with Peggy, and James can't come over."

"Mkay."

Peggy was only half listening to this exchange, her mind was wandering and her eyes were roving the kitchen and taking in every detail she could see while, and she had pulled her hair over her shoulder and was running her fingers through it again. Peggy didn't notice she was humming until she noticed that the room had gone quiet. "Uhm."

Suddenly self-conscious and going slightly pink, Peggy fixed her hair, ducked her head, and stuffed her hands into her pockets, then stared at the floor and tried to pick out patterns in the kitchen tiles.

"What were you humming?" Eliza asked after a moment, Peggy just shrugged.

Soon, Angelica announced that breakfast (pancakes) was ready and let the other serve themselves before she got food and sat at the bar with them. The conversation was sparse and idle, Peggy was still nervous around the two, but she did eventually work up the nerve to ask what they were doing that day.

"We're going shopping," Angelica told her.

"Okay." Peggy was confused, because as far as she knew neither of her new adoptive parents-whose names she still didn't know-were home and able to drive them anywhere. Sensing her confusion, Eliza spoke up. "Don't worry, we have a chauffeur and dad's credit card, he said we could buy stuff for you! To decorate your room and stuff."

"Oh," none of the families Peggy had been with had ever done that, but then again, they had all been foster families. "Okay." She said again, not really wanting to question the whole "chauffeur" and "dad's credit card" things.

Content with that, Eliza went back to eating.  
-  
A bit later, Peggy was in her room, at her desk, writing in her notebook while she waited for the other two to get dressed. She was shaking slightly, but she'd deal with it, she was fairly certain it was nothing major, it was fine.

There was knock at her door. "Yes?" Peggy called, figuring it was one of the girl's telling her they were ready to go.

Angelica opened the door slightly and poked her head inside. "Hey, we're ready to leave when you are."

"Okay, I'll be done in a moment." Peggy replied, already putting her notebook in one of the desk's drawers and getting up, Angelica left and closed the door behind her.

She headed out and downstairs, Eliza and Angelica were in the living, Eliza was talking to someone on her phone, and seeming to have a spirited argument. Peggy shot Angelica a puzzled look, but she just shrugged in response.

They waited a few more moments and Eliza finally got off the phone, she looked at the apologetically. "Sorry, Maria was having trouble with James."

"She should dump him!" Angelica exclaimed.

"Uh.. Who?" Peggy asked.

Eliza laughed. "Maria's a friend of ours, her boyfriend's a jerk."

"Oh. She _should_ dump him."

"Exactly!" Angelica agreed.

"How old is she?"

"Your age,"Angelica said, "eleven."

"Yikes. And him?"

"High school senior." Eliza interjected.

" _Yikes_."

"Yeah." Eliza looked at her phone and frowned. "Oh god, we gotta go! The driver must be waiting!"

"Damn! Okay, let's go!" Angelica shouted, Peggy flinched, but played it off and jogged out the door after Eliza, Angelica closed and locked the front door, and Eliza led Peggy down to the driveway, where they all piled into a waiting car, Peggy didn't know what kind of car it was, but it was fancy.

She didn't know where they were going, but after about ten minutes they came to a stop in a parking lot and they started getting out, once she was out of the car, Peggy realized they were at a large mall. _"Haha, great. Large, crowded spaces, great."_ She thought grimly. Eliza must've noticed her frowning, because she gently nudged Peggy's arm, and once again Peggy tried not to flinch. "Are you okay?" Eliza asked, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, I'm.. I'm fine." Peggy was lying through her teeth, but Eliza bought it. "Good! Don't worry, it'll be fun."

Peggy just nodded in response.  
-  
About an hour later, they were still combing through the mall, and Peggy's current "haul"-as the other two had dubbed it-consisted of two large bags filled with new clothes and accessories, and two bags full of knickknacks, notebooks, pens, and other random things.

Currently, the small group was on their way to the food court to get lunch, she wasn't really hungry, but the other two were, so who was she to argue?

And she was starting to warm up to the others. Angelica, though well-meaning, was a bit bossy, but really nice, and Eliza was on her phone a lot, but kept the conversation going and helped Peggy pick out clothes and stuff. She hoped they wouldn't grow tired of her and send her out into the system again.

It didn't take long from them o reach the food court, and once they did, Angelica stopped their group. "So. What do we want to eat?"

Eliza shrugged, and Peggy looked around at all the kiosks. "I'm not really hungry," she confessed.

"Can we just get pizza?" Eliza nodded in the direction of the pizza kiosk.

Angelica looked over, then nodded. "Yeah. Peggy, do you want a drink or something?"

She thought for a moment. "Uh, a dr. Pepper would be nice." Angelica nodded. "You two go find a table, I'll get the food."

"Okay, c'mon, Pegs!" Eliza took the bag Angelica was holding and started off o find a table while Angelica went to get food, Peggy stood there for a moment, confused. She already had a nickname? Most people couldn't even get "Peggy" right. She didn't have time to dwell on that, and had to jog to catch up to Eliza.

While they waited for Angelica, Eliza was asking all sorts of non-invasive question, Peggy was thankful for the distraction, the loud noise of the mall was starting to get to her.

"Favourite.. Animal?" Eliza asked.

"Owls, or cats." Peggy responded.

"Favourite colour?"

"Yellow and orange."

"Favourite movies?"

"I never got to watch a lot, but probably the Lion King of Guardians of Ga'Hoole."

Eliza nodded, her expression was serious, as if she were interviewing Peggy for a job. "Favourite.. Book?"

"I don't read much," Peggy replied, Eliza nodded again.

Before she could ask anything else, Angelica came back carrying a tray that held two slices of pizza and three drinks, she handed them out accordingly and then shoved the tray off to the side. Peggy sat quietly while the other two ate, letting her mind wander. She looked around the mall and studied the people there, she wondered where they came from and what they were doing, and started attempting to make up backstories for the more interesting people she saw

After lunch they unanimously decided that it was time to head back to the house, Peggy was glad the other two wanted to leave, she was pretty tired.

The trio made their way out to the parking lot, Peggy blinked in the brighter natural light for a few moments as she followed the other two, it was a pretty nice day, and she had gotten some pretty nice things. She only hoped that it would last.

On the drive back, she half listened to the idle chatter and half focused on the music from the radio, but was pulled from her thoughts by Eliza.

"Hey, would you mind if we had some friends over tomorrow?" Eliza asked, gesturing with her phone for emphasis.

"By "some" she means about ten." Angelica interjected.

 _"Yikes,_ Peggy thought. "Uhm, yeah, that'd be fine?" She wasn't entirely sure why Eliza was asking her permission, but whatever.

"Cool! I think you'll like them." Eliza smiled, Peggy smiled back.  
-  
Back at the house, they unloaded the bags from the car and hauled them up to Peggy's room. "Need any help with this?" Eliza asked, gesturing at the bags.

"No thanks," Peggy replied.

"I'm going to be outside, so, call Angie if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay." Peggy agreed.

Eliza smiled again and left the room, shortly after, Angelica looked in. "Hey, just a heads' up, I'm in the loft if you need anything."

"Okay, thanks." Peggy said and Angelica left.

Peggy looked at the bags, deciding to sort through the knickknacks and things first.  
-  
Later that night the whole family had dinner together, Peggy squirmed in her seat uncomfortably and picked at her food, far from a conversationalist, she half listened to whatever they were talking about and studied the table instead. No one really spoke to her, which she was pretty happy about, and dinner went pretty smoothly.

Afterwards they were sent upstairs to get ready for bed and she locked herself in her room again, only coming out to ask Eliza what time her friends would be coming over, "around ten," was the answer.

She went to bed early that night, knowing she'd have a long day ahead of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: before posting this I edited out a small chunk.
> 
> Shout out to my friends who read this and put up with me when I complain about writing it, y'all are great.  
> Another shout out to all of the readers I don't know who leave kudos, you're great too!!
> 
> Remember- you can always message me on my tumblr, @HamThePan
> 
> And if you liked this, please take a few minutes to leave a comment!! It really helps me and motivates me to write more, I'd really appreciate a comment <3
> 
> Thanks for reading~!


	4. Chapter 4

She couldn't sleep that night. Her room seemed too cold and foreign, it was different than what she was used to, and Peggy was too busy stressing about the next day to even worry about sleep, but eventually it came and washed her away.

When Peggy woke up, the sun was already up, but she didn't have way to tell the time. Her room was rather messy because she had never finished sorting the new things she had gotten the day before. She groaned and rolled out of bed, then stood next to it for a few moments, blinking in the light that streamed through her bedroom window.

Eventually she got clean clothes and went to take a quick shower, and after that, she padded downstairs and to the kitchen, where she found Angelica, Eliza, and a third, unfamiliar girl.

This girl had red hair and light skin, from her angle, that was all Peggy could see of her, she blinked, confused. Angelica noticed her first and waved her over. "Morning Pegs! This is Eliza's friend, Catherine, Kitty, this is Peggy."

"Hi," Peggy said.

"Hello," the girl responded. Now that she was closer, Peggy could see she had brown eyes and lots of freckles. "Call me Kitty, okay? Everyone does." Kitty continued, Peggy nodded and went to sit down, ending up between Eliza and Angelica.

For the next half hour, Peggy listened to whatever they were talking about and tried to pick out patterns in the table's wood grain, and when she got bored of that, she tried to write poetry in her head, which was surprisingly difficult.

It was only when the doorbell rang through the house loudly did Peggy start paying attention again, she resisted the urge to flee upstairs as Eliza and Kitty went to answer the door, and a quick glance at the microwave's clock told her it was ten- Eliza's friends were going to be there.

Peggy bit her tongue lightly to keep her thoughts from spiraling out of control and tried focusing on the voices coming from the foyer, there were at least two masculine sounding voices among the fray, she couldn't help but wonder how many people showed up all at once.

She suddenly realized she was alone in the dining room, Angelica must've left while Peggy had been gathering her thoughts. She sighed and got up, quietly walking out into the living and looking at the new people wearily.

One was a rather short boy with dark, shoulder length hair and tired eyes, he was talking a lot and pretty fast, she didn't know what he was saying. Another was a broad shouldered boy with dark skin and really short hair, he was wearing a grey beanie and towered above the others. A third was a boy of medium height with long, curly dark hair, dark eyes, and lots of freckles, he was grinning widely and seemed friendly enough. And the final boy was a tall-ish one with lighter brown skin and curly dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, his eyes were bright and when he spoke, she detected some sort of accent.

Once again, Angelica was the first to notice she had drifted into the room. "Hey, guys, this is my lil sister Peggy, be nice to her or I'll destroy you, okay?" Angelica smiled pleasantly, as if that wasn't a thinly veiled threat, the group turned towards her and Peggy gave a small wave.

"I'm Alexander Hamilton!" The short boy was the first to introduce himself, the freckle-y one shouldered his way past Alexander. "I'm John Laurens."

"Bonjour, je m'appelle Lafayette," said the tall-ish kid with the accent, Lafayette, she supposed, he bowed slightly at the waist, "odd,"Peggy thought.

Finally, the broad-shouldered boy introduced himself. "My name is Hercules Mulligan and," he held up a hand, "please don't make jokes about the name."

"Wasn't gonna," Peggy responded. "My name's Peggy."

"Nice to meet you!" Alex broke in.

Before they could say much else, the doorbell rang again. There were three new girls at the door, "Jesus, do they travel in packs?" Peggy wondered.

One girl was fair-skinned with short, bleach blonde hair and introduced herself as Dolley Payne, the second had dark skin and smooth, long black hair, she introduced herself as Theodosia, the third had light brown skin that sort of remind Peggy of coffee and wavy brown hair, she introduced herself as Maria.

(Peggy later realized they looked similar and proceeded to be weirded out by the fact.)

Angelica was starting to herd everyone up to the loft, when the doorbell rang a third time as more kids arrived. The first looked like Lafayette, but his hair was darker, slightly longer, and really curly, the second looked a bit like Hercules, broad-shouldered and tall, but he walked sort of hunched over and wore neutral colors, like he wanted to be ignored. The last kid had dark skin and an angular face, his head was shaved and shiny, he seemed quiet and reserved.

They introduced themselves as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Aaron Burr.

After a second attempt, Angelica was able to wrangle everyone upstairs and into the loft, she introduced Peggy again, and then the group promptly forgot about her.

She found she was rather uncomfortable around all of the people. Though they were nice enough, no one spoke to her directly and she had to break into the conversation if she wanted to say anything, and they were all quite loud. At one point, James broke into a coughing fit and Thomas started patting his back.

"Heh, gayyy," Dolley yelled.

Thomas glared in her direction. "Real classy," He spat.

"What do you know about class, Jefferson! You have about as much class as a moldy potato." Alexander called.

"At least I have a proper house!" Jefferson shot back, everyone gasped, Alexander looked incredibly shocked and hurt.

"Too fucking far, Jefferson!" Angelica shouted. "Too. Fucking. Far!"

After that, Peggy retreated into her room to continue sorting things, trying to calm herself down.

When someone knocked on the door, she invited them in, only to be surprised when it turned out to Alexander instead of Eliza or Angelica.

"You okay?" He asked. "You seemed uncomfortable, but I don't think anyone noticed, so I thought I'd be polite and come check in?"

Peggy shrugged. "I'm forgettable," she thought. "I'm fine," she lied.

Alexander raised his eyebrows, unlike Angelica or Eliza, he wasn't gonna let it slid. "Hi fine, I'm dad." He snorted at his own joke, Peggy stared at him for a moment, but the corner of her mouth quirked up.

"So," He said after a brief pause. "Need help with this?" Alex gestured at the mess that was her room, Peggy shrugged, "I mean, I guess? Wouldn't you rather hang out with your friends?"

"And see Jefferson's ugly mug? Nah."

This time, Peggy giggled a little. "Then, if you don't mind, a little help would be cool. I just gotta figure out where I want all this," Peggy gestured to the knickknacks and decorations around the room. "And I gotta fold clothes." Alex nodded. "This won't be too hard, then."

-  
They worked together quietly, occasionally one would stop and ask the other's opinion on something, ("where should I put this poster?" Alex asked. "How about.. Above the bed?" Peggy answered).

Surprisingly, no one came to check up on them, and neither one kept track of the time, so it must've been about two hours later when Angelica appeared in the doorway, she looked around Peggy's considerably cleaner, more colorful room and nodded her approval. "We're thinking about going out for lunch," She said, it sounded more like a statement than a warning. "Do you guys want to come with, or would should we bring food back for you?"

"Alex?" Peggy prompted.

He thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'll come with. Pegs?"

"Okay." She said simply and got up for her place by the desk, Alex followed suit and they made their way towards the door, Angelica raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

When they reached the loft, everyone was considerably quieter, Peggy darted back to her room to grab her jacket, and got back just in time to hear Jefferson remark to Alex, "already making moves on the new Schuyler girl?" She ducked her head, blushing slightly, but then she heard John respond with, "nah, he has me. Let him make friends, or are you jealous because you can't?"

She bit back a laugh at John's retort, and another at Jefferson's angry huff, she must've been making an odd face, though, because Maria came up to her and asked if she was okay. "I'm fine," Peggy responded, Alex came up next to her. "Yeah, you are," He said, adding a wink for effect, Peggy snorted. "Was that a joke or a compliment?" She asked, "both," Alex replied.

The group eventually bundled their way out the front door and into the Schuyler's fancy car, they were all quite loud as they tried to figure out where they wanted to go for lunch, because apparently no one had thought to figure out where they were going when they all agreed they wanted to go out. Eventually they decided on Denny's.

With everyone distracted, Peggy found herself making conversation with Maria, who was nice enough, if not a bit flighty.

"Where are you from?" Maria asked.

Peggy frowned. "Here and there," she answered carefully.

Maria nodded. "How long have you been living with the Schuyler's? Do you like it here?"

"I've only been here a few days, I guess it's pretty nice." Peggy tilted her head slightly, "have you lived here long?"

"Yeah, a couple years, my family moved here when I was younger."

"How old are you?" Peggy asked.

"Eleven."

"Oh," she remembered what Eliza and Angelica had told her yesterday, that Maria was dating a high school senior, she wondered why Maria would do that, she seemed smart enough to know that that wasn't a really okay thing to do, but Peggy wasn't about to say anything about business that wasn't hers.

Soon they pulled up in the Denny's parking lot and piled out of the car, they were seated and made their orders, and talked loudly before and after the food arrived.  
-  
Far later in the day, everyone had gone home and the three were in the loft, Angelica was reading, Eliza was on her phone, and Peggy was writing in her notebook- like always. She was worn out from the day's events and wanted nothing more than to go to bed, but she still had to eat dinner with the family, then she could go and lay down and sleep.

Peggy looked up from her notebook and yawned, she carefully closed her notebook and set it off to the side and laid day on the couch, sighing softly. The day had been pretty good, and she had met a good lot of people, she needed to socialize more, before she had come to the Schuyler's she tried to avoid making friends, knowing that she'd end up leaving at some point or another, it was nice to know people, even if they were loud and overwhelming.

She shifted deeper into the cushions and closed her eyes, surely a small nap wouldn't hurt..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!! Thanks for reading, like always. I just wanted to give a heads' up, I won't be able to update this regularly for a while due to some RL problems, I will begin updating as soon as i can, but for now, this along with my other works, won't be updating for a while, sorry!!
> 
> Sorry if this chapter seems a bit off or anyone seems OOC, I didn't really have time to wholly edit things aside from typos, so if it seems off or I messed up any minor details, I'll fix it later.  
> //also I have literally never been?? to Denny's, so i have no idea how it works.
> 
> Don't forget, you can reach me on my tumblr @HamThePan
> 
> Please leave comments if you enjoyed!! It means a lot to me.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, she woke up in a daze. Yesterday evening, she had fallen asleep on a couch in the loft, she knew someone had woken her up for dinner, but she didn't remember much after that.

Peggy yawned and stretched lazily in her bed, it was only her third day there, but she was finally getting used to her new room and bed and everything, and with the decorations up, it looked brighter and more colorful. According to the new clock on her nightstand, it was..

 _"Shit,_ Peggy jolted upright, it was almost eleven, had she really slept that late? She hoped no one would be upset, she was just tired, yesterday had been exhausting and sleep had been easy last night. She yawned again and rolled out of bed, stretched again, then padded softly out of her room. The others were already in the loft.

"G'morning, sunshine!" Eliza called, Peggy smiled slightly and waved. "There's some pancakes in the kitchen for you, since you missed breakfast. Angie said to not wake you because you seemed really tired," Eliza continued, she nodded her thanks to the older girl and continued downstairs to eat.

Even after four years, Peggy wasn't used to being able to eat a lot, her eating habits had gotten better since she was removed from her first house, but she still tended to serve herself in small portions and avoid eating too much, but she as pretty hungry that morning and took a bit extra to eat.

After breakfast, Peggy went to shower, she took a bit longer than she needed to, just standing under the too-hot water with her eyes closed, listening to the drum of the water as it poured down the drain.

Finally, she got out and got dressed, then got her notebook and pen (noting that her notebook was almost full, she realized she'd need to start a new one soon), and went to write in the loft, where Eliza was still sitting.

"Oh!" Eliza suddenly exclaimed, making Peggy flinch in surprise. "Your phone got here!"

"Phone?" Peggy cocked her head slightly, confused.

"Yeah, didn'tcha know you were getting one?" Eliza asked, she shook her head, still puzzled. "Huh," Eliza added, "well, it's here and we should set it up!" She sat up and leaned towards the coffee table to grab a small box, then handed it to Peggy.

After a bit of struggle, Peggy opened the box to find another box, this one had the shiny cover of an Iphone box. _"I don't need such a fancy phone, do I?"_ Peggy thought, eyeing it in confusion.

Eliza gently urged her to keep opening it, so she did. It was one of the newer Iphones, which confused and surprised her even more, but she pulled it from the plastic wrap and held it gingerly, afraid that if she moved to fast, it might break.

Sensing her confusion, Eliza came and sat next to Peggy to help her set up the phone, while also keeping up a conversation and cracking jokes, even managing to get he younger girl to actually laugh. Once they got the phone set up, Eliza gave Peggy her and Angelica's numbers, and then decided it'd be a good idea to add Peggy to a group chat.  
/  
**Eliza**  
Hey guys peggys phone is here!!  
Im adding her to the chat

_**/Eliza added Peggy to the group/** _

**???**  
hey pegs!

 **???**  
Bonjour

 **???**  
Yo  
/  
"So, They just show up as numbers?" It was like she had never had a phone before, which she hadn't, none of her foster families had thought she needed one, and for the most part they had been right.

"You gotta add their numbers to your contacts, like so," Eliza gently took the phone from Peggy and showed her how to add contacts, and told her who was who, soon she figured it out.  
/  
**Peggy**  
Hi

 **Dolley**  
yo x2

 **Alex**  
H e y

 **Herc**  
Yo  
/  
The conversation took off, but Peggy found it easier to follow when it was over texts, after a few minutes of watching the chat scroll, Eliza started showing her apps and stuff, even going so far as to offer help in making an instagram, which she politely declined, deciding she wasn't going to need any social media accounts. Pretty much the rest of the day was Eliza helping Peggy with her new phone and showing her different apps and features it had, the day was pretty good. Angelica even appeared at some point to photobomb the selfie Eliza was trying to take.

-

For the next few days, when she isn't entirely busy hanging out with her sisters (she had began to accept them as her sisters), Peggy was on her phone, most of the time she was texting Alex, until one day, he stopped responding. In fact, he stopped responding to all of them, and the group chat, everyone was worried, because it wasn't like Alex to be quiet.

Peggy was probably the most worried, though she tried not to show it, Angelica and Eliza assured her something had probably come up, but it didn't do much to ease her worry.

After about two days, they finally got news in the group chat. Except, it wasn't good.

/

**John**

hey guys i just heard from alexs brother

he and his mom are really sick, theyve been hospitalized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Please don't hate me for this chapter and my use of timeskips and also spelling errors, I posted this from my mom's phone because I wanted to update while I had the time, and was unable to edit this the way I wanted to.
> 
> I am actually writing this from the restaurant as we wait to order dessert, so that's cool.
> 
> I hope everyone's having a good Thanksgiving!! And for those who don't celebrate it, I hope you've had a good day!!
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated!! I love hearing from you guys.
> 
> And, don't worry, I plan on editing this as soon as I am able.
> 
> Take care!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I look at tags on fanfics, and I've noticed that there are people who tag seriously, and then people like me, who don't.

Not long after they heard the news, they arranged a small group to visit to the hospital. "They" included Eliza, Peggy, Angelica, Lafayette, Hercules, John, Aaron, and Theo, the nurses were a bit surprised and confused as to why a small group of kids under the age sixteen were at the hospital, and turned them away the first time because it was past visiting hours, but they returned a few days later with an adult (Philip Schuyler (Peggy finally learned his name)) and got in to visit Alex.

Since Alexander was in because he had a dangerously high fever, they couldn't actually go into the room, they didn't need it spreading, but the kids were allowed to look in through the window on the door, which wasn't really a good enough _visit_ , but at least they knew Alexander was doing sort of okay and wasn't dead (though it seemed he was pretty close to dying).

Though their visit was short, they did run into Alex's brother, James, who was sitting in the waiting room, hunched over and half asleep, he looked a bit like Alex, but a bit taller, and his hair was shorter and messier, he looked just as tired as Alex usually did, but his eyes were dull and tired. He seemed relaxed, but not in a calm way, it seemed more like he was too tired to hold himself up, Mr. Schuyler went to talk to him about something, Peggy didn't know what.

Something jogged Peggy's memory, the scent of the hospital and how cold it was, and the sound of machinery, perhaps, but it reminded her of something long suppressed, and she found herself backing up slightly, shifting closer to her adopted sisters like they could and would protect her from the evils of her past. Peggy drew into herself, crossing her arms tightly over her chest and hunching her shoulders slightly, Angelica noticed the change in her demeanor and reached out to gently rub her back. The gesture was familiar and comforting, she bit her tongue to keep from saying anything.

Mr. Schuyler finished his conversation with James Hamilton and went back to the group, casting concerned glances back at the boy. Mr. Schuyler said that they had to get going and that he had work, he also said that they could visit Alex again in another few days, the small group allowed themselves to be herded out of the building, Peggy stayed close to Angelica and cast wary glances around the hospital.

As they drove home, she slowly realized that she had been in a hospital before, when she was younger, probably right after she had been taken from her biological parents. She didn't remember why she had needed to be in a hospital, but she knew it hadn't been good and she stayed for a while.

Peggy nestled back into the seat cushion, her eyelids sinking shut. She felt tired, not the normal tired, but the kind of tired one felt after crying for a while, or when they woke up from a nap. She was ready to sleep for a while, and maybe when she woke up, Alex would be better and everything would be okay.  
-

She vaguely remembered being carried inside, by who, she didn't know and was too drowsy to really care, eventually she fell asleep again, sleepily thinking, _"When was the last time I was this tired?_

When Peggy woke up the second time, it was a bit later in the day. She was on one of the couches in the loft and Angelica was at the other end of the couch, reading.

The loft was empty, which was a bit confusing, but she didn't have time to puzzle over it because Angelica noticed she had woken up.

"The others went out to get food," Angelica explained, noting Peggy's expression. She just nodded and yawned, Peggy didn't like naps, usually they left her more tired than she had been, and this was no exception.

"They're going to bring back food for us," Angelica continued after a brief pause, Peggy nodded again and got up to use the bathroom and get her notebook and phone, both of which were in her desk in her room. When she returned, Angelica hadn't moved, she sat at the end of the couch and started to write, humming softly and doing her best to not think of Alex in the hospital, Peggy sighed softly and flipped to an empty page in her notebook, then frowned as she slowly came to the conclusion that there weren't any empty pages.

She got up again and padded off to her room to get one of the new notebooks they had gotten the other day while out shopping.

A bit later, she heard the door open, then close, then the sound of a jacket being tossed somewhere, and Eliza came up the stairs, carrying a paper bag. "The others abandoned me to go home," she complained dramatically.

"You should've been home earlier," Angelica replied absently, Eliza huffed. "I brought you guys food, by the way."

"Thanks," Peggy spoke up. Eliza must not have seen her, because she flinched in surprised. "Oh, hi Pegs!" Eliza said, "didn't know you were awake."

Peggy shrugged.

After a few more minutes of conversation between Angelica and Eliza, Angelica finally got the food from her sister and she and Peggy figured out who got what of what Eliza had brought them.

When they finished dinner, each girl went off to do their own things, Angelica went to shower, Eliza went to her room, and Peggy stayed in the loft, writing, like always.

Eliza had told Peggy that Angelica was going to archery class tomorrow (their home school group apparently ran a class there? It sounded cool), and then told her that while Angelica was gone, they were going to have a movie marathon, which sounded fun, but Peggy wasn't sure if she'd be up to it, she was worried about Alexander, but she was also worried that she'd space out during the movies, what if she got lost in the plot or something?

But then, the distraction would be nice, she would have a bit of time to have fun instead of stress herself out over everything, and a movie marathon wouldn't be too bad, would it? Her attention span wasn't too short, but still.

She went to bed feeling stressed and tired, but still hopeful for the days to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello small children it's early update time!!
> 
> I won't be updating for a few days?? After this?? I don't think. Probably not. i'm getting a new tablet, so I'm gonna work on my chapter backlog (because yikes, i only have chapter seven ready, after this, and half of eight, so, i gotta Work) but!! Once I get a few extra chapters in the backlog, I will update more, and on schedule!! Cool.
> 
> Anyway!! let me know what you think in the comments!! I love hearing from y'all, so take some time to comment if you can <3  
> Also!! I'd love to hear if you guys have any ideas as to what you want in this 'verse? Like, characters or events or stuff, because honestly, i have ideas for where this is gonna go, but I need help figuring out filler stuffs :P
> 
> (sorry if the chapter? Didn't make much sense I wrote it late at night and my sister/beta reader said she thought it was fine, so)  
> Take care, everyone!! And thank you very much for reading!!


	7. AUTHORS NOTE (I'm so sorry)

Hey all!!

I am so, so sorry that I haven't been updating, I've been suffering with some writer's block, and basically I know exactly where I want this to go, but I can't figure out what to write to get there, on top of that the holidays are coming up so I've been more busy figuring out what to get my family for christmas instead of how to progress this story- oops. I swear I have been working on the chapters, but I only have a draft of ch. seven and a half finished chapter eight draft that I wrote, erased half of, and am trying to rewrite, I'm probably going to give up on writing drafts in order and write stuff whenever I think of it and work on connecting it, which well probably work a lot better than stopping myself where I am until I finish it. Y i k e s

In other news, I'm gonna be getting a new tablet v v soon which will be SUPER helpful, because I'll be able to write stuff down when I get the ideas instead of having to drag out my laptop to write, so yay!!

So, I *think* I covered everything I wanted to cover, so I'm gonna post this and hope for the best.

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you all have a Good Time!!

(P.s - if y'all want to comment,,, like,,, writing tips or,, anything,,, that'd be,, so great,,)

~Peggy


	8. Chapter 8

Early that morning, Peggy got up and made her way down to the kitchen.

Angelica and Eliza were already there, like usual. Eliza was half asleep on the kitchen island and Angelica was drinking coffee (Peggy found that a bit odd considering Angelica seemed to hate the drink, but she didn't comment on it).

Conversation was sparse, mainly because it was far too early for any of them to even attempt to kick up idle chatter, and partially because no one wanted to, that was fine with her.

After breakfast, Angelica left for her archery class, and Peggy went upstairs to shower and get dresses while Eliza picked out movies to watch like she promised Peggy they would.

The movie marathon went about as well as expected, she kept zoning out and losing the plot, and Eliza would have to pause and patiently explain what was going on, she could almost tell that the other girl was a bit irritated, though she didn't say anything.

Eliza's movie selection was pretty good, it was mostly older Disney movies, with some newer Disney movies and movies that weren't Disney related at all mixed in.

Around noon they decided to break for lunch, and that's when one John Laurens showed up, they interrogated him in the kitchen while she made lunch.

"So what brings you around?" Peggy asked, quietly studying John's face. He had a lot of freckles, she wondered if any of them formed patterns.

"I was bored," he answered simply.

"Where are Laf and Herc?" Eliza asked.

"Laf is at the archery class and Herc has sewing," John answered again. "I figured I'd drop in, because I don't want to be at home very much." Eliza nodded knowingly, Peggy was confused but didn't ask, deciding it was better if she didn't.

"I can leave if you want," he finished.

"It's fine! Don't worry, you can join the movie marathon." Elia replied, already starting on a third sandwich.

While she made lunch, Eliza instructed Peggy to get a packet of Koolaid (there was a brief dispute over what flavour they wanted to have) and a pitcher, and told her where she could find the sugar to mix in the Kool Aid as per instructions. Peggy only almost dropped the full pitcher (twice) and almost spilt Kool Aid on John, but aside from that it went fairly smoothly.

They moved back to the living room with their food and started on movies again, except this time they were loudly discussing plot holes and things the villains could've done better and so on, Peggy listened for the most part, but she'd occasionally chime in with theories and ideas of her own to see what the others thought.

Afternoon rolled into evening, and Angelica finally came back, Lafayette was with her, and they brought dinner. Eliza made them watch The Bee Movie while they ate (despite quite a bit of protesting), and once they were done, Peggy finally learned more about homeschooling.

"So like, what is homeschooling?" Peggy asked, there was a lull in the conversation, so she figured it'd be best to ask then, instead of continue not knowing, and continuing to be confused. 

Everyone was quiet for a few moments after she asked, Angelica spoke first. "We never did tell you about that, did we?" Peggy shook her head. "Right, the short version of it, is that we school from home."

"Like, online school?"

"I mean, some of us do, like Jefferson and Madison, I think Aaron does, too," Angelica looked at the others for answers, they shrugged. "But we-I'm speaking for the Schuylers-don't."

"Laf and I don't either." John added, Laf elbowed him and he elbowed Laf right back.

"But then, what do you do?" Peggy tilted her head slightly and looked around, Eliza was half-asleep and Laf and John were elbowing each other.

"Well, we're apart of a group of homeschoolers, and basically if certain parents know certain subject they teach little classes, like, for languages or writing or art, and then some kids go to the local schools for certain classes only, like choir or art or english, and so on." Angelica paused to take a breath, and to tell John and Laf to stop.

"The group also organizes fieldtrips to like, zoos and museums, so we get out and learn. And they can get discounts at certain places, like the archery range, and get classes there for kids who are interested in things like that."

Another pause. Peggy spoke. "But like, what about math and stuff?"

"We have books for that," Angelica replied. "Personally, I hate them, but there are books and curriculums that homeschool kids can work on. There are lot's of different curriculums to choose from, we use one called Math-U-See, which I, again, personally hate."

"Math is great." John interjected.

"Nerd," Laf muttered, then grinned at John, Peggy snickered.

"So you don't go to school?"

"Non," this time it was Laf replying.

"French fucker," John muttered, like Laf had before, then he grinned at Laf, Peggy snickered again.

Peggy took a moment to process this, then nodded. "Oh," she said simply, unsure how to reply.

The response she got was an "Mhmm" from Angelica before she started telling the boys they needed to leave because it was late, after much complaining, Laf and John complied and they all said their goodbyes and saw the two off, Eliza had fallen asleep at this point, so Angelica told Peggy told leave her and asked her to help make dinner, she agreed.

Making dinner was fun, Angelica knew what she was doing and gave her simple tasks, the meal wasn't too complex, either, just pasta and garlic bread.

They woke Eliza up once they finished making dinner, not long before the Schuyler parents got home, dinner was great, but Peggy didn't pay attention to the conversation.

After dinner, the girls made their way upstairs to get ready for bed, and played card games until they were told to go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi friends, I hope your holidays have been good (what is grammar)
> 
> I'm here with an update, surprisingly, in this we learn a bit about homeschooling, based off questions people a l w a y s ask me when they find out I'm homeschooled. Except, in this the answers are far better than my shy self can manage when a classmate I barely know asks me questions.
> 
> Anyway, I'm really doing my best to keep this going but I have a lot of writing ideas and none of them involve this, which really sucks ): I'll try to get more chapters out but any form of schedule is going to be shot.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Like always, y'all can tell at me on my Tumblr @HamThePan or yell at me through the comments here, I really love feedback <3
> 
> Take care!!


	10. Chapter 10

The next day, it rained. Which wasn't entirely surprising considering that the day before had been cloudy and bleak.

Peggy woke up early to the pitter patter of raindrops rattling her window pane, she loved rain, so she got dressed quickly and quietly and slipped out of her room, not before scrawling a quick note reading, "I went out in the rain, I'll be in soon-peggy" and sliding it under her sister's door, so they wouldn't worry when they woke up.

After that, she crept downstairs and slipped out the front door. Outside, the rain was louder as it pounder down onto the awning above the porch. Peggy padded down the porch steps and out into the rain, grinning as the drops patterned down her head and streamed down her face.

It was raining pretty hard, so it didn't take too long for her to get absolutely soaked, but that didn't drive her inside, instead she moved further away from the house, grinning widely as she explored the grounds, the Schuyler property was immense, so she didn't wander out too far and made sure to keep the house in view.

After what had to be an hour (she wasn't watching the time, in fact, she had left her phone inside because she didn't want it to get wet), she finally made her way back inside. She heard Eliza and Angelica in the kitchen and went to say goodmorning.

Eliza's eyes widened when she saw the state Peggy was in. "You're going to catch a cold!" She exclaimed, Peggy shrugged. "I'm fine."

"You can't be all wet in the house, regardless. Let's go get you dried off." Eliza hopped off her seat and went to over Peggy to grab her gently around the wrist and tug her upstairs.

Fifteen minutes later, Peggy was dried, changed, and sitting in the living room while Eliza brushed out her hair, which didn't really need to be brushed, but she would humor the older girl.

Angelica brought them breakfast (scrambled eggs), and put some cartoon on the tv, though none of them were wholly paying attention

After breakfast, Peggy excused herself and went upstairs to hang out in her room. She sat at the desk and rifled through the drawers to find her notebook, once she did find it, she flipped through the worn pages to find an empty one, only to realize with dismay that is was all full. Some of the entries were proper diary entries, others were doodles of pointless things, and along most every page, the ledgers were filled with quotes and song lyrics, the older entries had been written in black ink and sometimes pencil, while newer entries were written in colors, all of the pages looked worn, reminding Peggy how long she had had it.

With a sigh, she got up and went to where her still mostly unpacked backpack lay at the end of her bed and opened it to put her old notebook in, she had to push other notebooks-far older than her current one-out of the way to make room for it. Originally, at the house she stayed at before, she had kept her notebooks under her bed, and now that she thought about it, she realized she could probably move them under her bed now, but that was a task for another day.

She lingered a moment longer before she got up and went back to her desk to get one of the notebooks she had bought weeks ago when she, Angelica, and Eliza had been at the mall. Peggy then shuffled around for her pen-the orange gel one-and started writing whatever was on her mind. The page quickly filled, but not with actual writing, it was some vague doodle (maybe a map? Even she couldn't tell).

Peggy gave up on it, leaving whatever it was supposed to be half finished as she went to check her phone, of course, she didn't have an new notifications aside from the group chat, which she started lazily scrolling through to see what everyone was arguing about now (with the absence of Alexander, they had to improvise), from what Peggy could tell, the argument was about whether or not Christopher Columbus actually discovered America. She pocketed her phone, grabbed her notebook and pen, and went downstairs again, because honestly, as much as she tried to ignore it, locking herself in her room all day was kind of boring.

As she made her way downstairs she heard Angelica and Eliza quietly discussing something, a trip to a zoo, it sounded like. Peggy dropped on to the couch next to Eliza without much warning. The two stared at her, she just said, "so, what are we talking about?"

"Our homeschool group is going on a trip to a local zoo in a few days, we uh," Eliza paused her explanation and glanced away from Peggy. "We weren't sure if you'd want to go.."

"I like zoos," Peggy said instead of giving an actual reply. "I don't really like large groups, but you guys would stick with me, right?" She realized that it sounded sort of clingy and frowned. "I mean like, I just, don't do well in groups. Unless I have other things to stress about that are bigger than the stress the group causes.. Aha I'm rambling nevermind." She frowned and looked away, towards the front door. Maybe she should just go out in the rain again.

"No, no, I get it," Angelica glanced at Eliza. "We get it, we'll stick with you, plus the some of the group will be there, so you'll know people, it'll be cool."

Peggy nodded. "Cool."

She added, "thanks."

The others didn't reply, it went quiet. After a few minutes, Peggy got up. "It's been fun but uh, imma go play in the rain some more." She headed to the door, but hesitated before opening it, she almost asked if they wanted to join her, but she didn't.

She went outside to stand in the rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the chapter that's held me up for months. That's cool.
> 
> Did u know turkeys can drown simply by looking up when it's raining because they can. Have fun with that random fact that I found relevant.
> 
> Anyway, I hope y'all like this, I'm so sorry it took forever, we're getting closer to a Big Event thing?? So that's cool. (Lmao who should I pair Eliza with suggest stuff in the comments)
> 
> Y'all can tell at me on Tumblr @hamthepan so please do that if you can.
> 
> Take care all!! Like n comment if you like this! It really keeps me going <3 thanks for reading!!


	11. Chapter 11

A couple days later, Peggy was woken up rather suddenly by Eliza. The awakening was mostly expected considering that they had to be up early for the homeschooler field trip type thing, but it was still partially unwelcome because Peggy rather liked to sleep, and disliked getting woken up at ungodly hours in the morning (though Angelica would later argue that five o'clock was not "ungodly").

Peggy groaned and rolled onto her side to face the wall and away from Eliza, while also pulling her sheets with her, effectively getting herself tangled further into the mass of blankets that made up her bed. Did she care? Not particularly, but Eliza was persistent and started trying to peel blankets off of Peggy, which didn't work incredibly well, but she was certainly trying. Eliza gave up after a few moments and went downstairs, and just as Peggy was about to fall asleep again, she heard Angelica shout something that had something to do with a cold glass of water. Peggy got up after that.

With only a few minor complaints, she stumbled downstairs for breakfast and got herself a bowl of cereal, all while half listening to whatever Eliza and Angelica were talking about. Only when she turned around did she notice that they weren't necessarily talking, so much as Angelica was trying to get Eliza to not sleep on the kitchen island, Eliza was about as much of a morning person as Peggy was, basically, not at all.

They finished breakfast and trudged upstairs to get dressed. Angelica was already dressed (she seemed to be the only actual morning person) and so she waited in the loft while her sisters got ready. Peggy wore her usual jeans and pale yellow t-shirt, which she unhappily noted looked rather faded, along with her brown zipper hoodie, which was also kind of worn, once dressed she ran a brush through her hair a couple times before leaving her room (taking her notebook and pen with her, of course).

She and Angelica had to wait a bit longer for Eliza to finish getting ready ("now do you see why we have to get up early?" "No." "Because y'all take forever to get dressed.") before Angelica bundled them downstairs and into the car.

Another reason they needed to get up so early was that the zoo they were going to was an hour away, and they were supposed to be there at eight, five in the morning was far earlier than necessary, although Angelice pointed out that it was which resulted in a short argument.

Peggy napped the rest of the way.

A short while later she was woken up when they were about fifteen minutes away so she'd be more alert when they actually got there. She just checked her phone and hummed along to the radio, she didn't know half the songs, but they all sounded vaguely familiar in one way or another, why, she didn't know and didn't really care to.

The car stopped and they piled out, a lot of the homeschool group was arriving, she noted a few familiar faces in the crowd-John, Laf, Aaron, Theo, and Dolley-and started to walk towards where they had formed a small group off to the of the main group, she stopped once in her tracks when she noticed neither sister had stayed with her, but figured they went to greet other friends and continued on her way, only to be stopped by someone.

He was pretty, with a triangular face, light blue eyes and full lips pulled into a half smile, his dark, curly hair was messy in controlled way and pulled together his whole 'look'. Peggy thought he looked a bit too dressed up for a zoo trip, but didn't comment on it.

"I haven't seen you before," he commented, not in an unfriendly way. "My name's Stephen."

She considered her words for a moment. "My name is Peggy," she responded finally. "I, uh, I just moved here?" It sounded more like a question than she intended, Stephen's expression turned questioning. "Where from?"

Peggy must have pulled some sort of face, because he switched topic with a light shrug. "No biggie," he said in response to her pause. "Have you been homeschooled long?" Peggy shook her head. "Ah, that's cool, it must be pretty odd, huh?"

"Not really, I mean, yeah it is? But my sisters and some friends explained it, mostly, so like? I get the gist of it?" Half of her statement were closer to questions, but honestly, she wasn't too sure of what she was saying.

Stephen nodded and went quiet for a moment, she tried to stealthily look over his shoulder at the group to see what they were up to, Stephen caught her gaze and followed it to the group before saying, "I'd advise you stay away from that group if you can, they're rather rowdy and annoying."

"Oh, yeah?" She tried to keep a straight face, he nodded again. "Only two of them are like, decent."

"Which two?" Peggy asked, her attempts at a straight face slowly failing.

He replied, "The two Schuyler girls, Elizabeth and Angelica."

Peggy snorted, she couldn't help it. Stephen's face twisted into one of confusion. "What's so funny?" He asked, though it was like a demand.

"They're-" Peggy struggled to stop laughing. "They're my sisters." She finally managed. Realization dawned on Stephen's face. "Oooooh."

"Yeeeaaah, so, I've already met like, the entire group. But they're cool." Peggy replied, still grinning.

Stephen seemed somewhat embarassed, but before he could say anything else, someone came up behind Peggy and slung their arm around her shoulders. Dolley-the mysterious person-leaned down to Peggy and whispered, "who's this guy?"

"His name is Stephen," Peggy whispered back. "He's cool. What are you doing?"

Dolley shrugged, she was looking at Stephen, but still talking to Peggy in a low tone. "Just checking on you as per request."

"Whose request?" Asked Peggy.

"Your sisters'." Dolley replied. "Also we're gonna be in the zoo soon so our lil friend group might get seperated so if ya wanna do a buddy system thing you should come over now."

Peggy looked at Stephen, who was standing there looking rather awkward, then she looked back at Dolley. "I think I'll hang out with Stephen, but I'll find one of you if I need you."

Dolley raised her eyebrows, then dramatically sighed. "I cannot believe you'd abandon us, your dearest friends and sisters, simply to spend time with someone you just met!" She proclaimed, gesturing at Stephen who looked more confused than ever. "How ever will i tell your sisters you abandoned them!" Dolley continued.

"Tell them that I'm leaving the family to become a sherpa." Peggy replied.

Dolley nodded. "Will do. Have fun!" She called as she walked off.

"Who was that?" Stephen asked.

"One of my friends, her name is Dolley. She's pretty cool." Peggy replied, she was interrupted as one of the chaperones started speaking. As Dolley had predicted, their tour guide had shown up and it was time for them to enter the zoo.  
-  
The zoo was small and didn't have many animals, but the guide had plenty of stories to tell about each of the animals. At noon, they ate lunch in the shade of a rather large tree, Peggy excused herself from Stephen and went to sit with her sisters' friend group, she was greeted with enthusiastic yelling and someone (probably Laurens) shouting, "hey look! She isn't dead!" To which everyone laughed and Peggy blushed with embarassment.  
-  
After lunch she went back to Stephen, and the homeschool group was shown around the last ahalf of the zoo. They even got to pet a real zebra, the zebra tried to eat Peggy's shirt.

And once the tour was done, the homeschool group broke, everyone shifting into their own groups or going with parents to go home, Peggy saw her friendgroup saying their goodbyes and turned to Stephen to do the same, instead, he surprised her.

"I had a great time today, Peggy." Stephen said.

"Yeah, me too. I'm glad my sisters brought me!" Peggy replied, smiling brightly.

"Hey so, I know we just met but uh, would you like to go to the winter formal with me?"

Peggy blinked, confused. "The what?"

"..The winter formal? The dance thing the homeschool group is hosting?" Stephen ventured.

Peggy blinked again. "I don't, I don't know what that is." Noticing Stephen's face fall, she quickly continued. "But! We could trade phone numbers and I can ask my sisters and then get back to you?"

Stephen nodded and smiled, they traded phone numbers and promised to keep i touch before they parted ways, Stephen off to who knows where, and Peggy off to join her sisters at their car. Only once they were in the vehical sid the questions start flowing.

"So who was that?" Eliza asked.

"What were you guys doing?" Angelica asked.

"His name is Stephen, and we were hanging out. Y'all should be proud I'm making friends." Peggy replied, leaning against the window.

"By the way, what's the winter formal?" She brought up casually. Eliza coughed.

"Where did you hear about that?" Angelica asked suspiciously.

"I overheard some kids discussing it today, geez." Peggy replied defensively.

"It's basically a dance thing the leaders of the homeschool group organize every winter," Eliza cut in before either of her sisters could start any sort of fight. "It's nothing special, usually we don't go but this year Angie got a date and she's going, so I guess I'm tagging along."

Peggy nodded thoughtfully and checked her phone. No new texts.

She sighed and shifted back in her seat, she had a lot to think about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy fuck you guys I actually updated for once in my life. Here are some important notes.
> 
> >headcanon that peggles and angelica dont get along super well at first.
> 
> >remember alexander? The guy who was hospitalized? Yeah neither do any of the characters.
> 
> >yes, it is the tail end of winter. Yes, I am writing about a winter themed dance. No, I do not know alot about dances, homeschool or not.
> 
> >the small private zoo thing is based off a small private zoo thing thats a couple hours away from where I live.
> 
> >yes stephen is a plot device and maybe not entirely relevent to the story. Nothing is relevent to the story.
> 
> >yes my updates are slow because I don't get a lot of comments and it hurts me guys, I love writing but I want to hear feedback and whats the point of writing if I dont get any?  
> (Comment on fanfiction u hecks. I can promise that writers l i v e to hear your thoughts on their works, it's not too hard and doesn't take too long #SupportFanficWriters)
> 
> >if you need to contact me do so by yelling at the moon. I will answer. (Or yell at me on tumblr @HamThePan)
> 
> >it is close to midnight and I wrote half of this on my phone please forgive any errors
> 
> >i spent a long time looking up hairstyles to find a reference for stephens hair.
> 
> >next chapter is going to be a girls night and also truth or dare. Maybe. Or build up to The Big Thing(tm)
> 
> >thats it. Thanks for reading, you guys!! Please dont forget to comment, i will marry everyone who comments.
> 
> Take care all~~!


End file.
